"Somebody That I Used to Know" is pretty good, "All About That Bass" is undeniably fun, and Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" is definitely worth a listen. There's a lot of silly music in every decade, and there is a lot of good music that doesn't make the charts. Some songs make the charts as much for an appealing or scandalous video as for the music (Wrecking Ball?), but I don't care to dismiss the whole decade of hit songs just because there is some crap in it, and many of the better songs get so over-played they become ear-worms. Besides this quiz isn't based on anyone's favorite music, it's a quiz testing recent knowledge of pop music artists. No one is asking you to like the songs.

Not all my cup of tea, but I'm inclined to think it is in fact not bad.
Sure there must be a lot of bad music nowadays just due to the sheer volume of new music, but I find it hard to believe that as opposed to everything else, music is the only thing that has gotten worse with technology.
The lyrics maybe, as there is less original stuff to write about, but clearly technology like autotune must be helpful otherwise we'd still just have the good singers at the top of the list, no?
People here might not like it, just like old guys watching sports, longing for the the good old days, but that doesn't mean it's worse.

You're all partially right. Popular music has long been trite fluff, back to the 50s at least, with a few better songs and a few better artists finding mainstream success here and there. Same as today. On the other hand, while bad pop music is nothing new, popular music does tend to be even stupider than ever, and compared to the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, pop songs today do have less to say. Even if it's not as big of a difference as some make it out to be. But there is definitely a trend toward focusing more on music that has a beat and is "danceable," along with a trend toward lyrics that are much less subtle and, objectively, just more stupid. Even if it's more of a slight and gradual evolution than the night and day difference some imply.

Oddly, the first song that was ever auto-tuned was Cher, who absolutely did not need it. Such a shame that it was invented and became a crutch for talentless musicians.
The only people I've ever heard that used it for something good are The Key of Awesome.

Electronic Dance Music for the 2000s is no different than Disco for the 70s. Dumb lyrics with a beat you can dance to. "Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing, yeah yeah. Show 'em how we do it now..." Not exactly awe inspiring lyrics. This trend isn't new. And amongst all of the EDM, Adele still shines bright above it all showing that people genuinely have an interest in strong vocals and lyrics.

True...most of this list is fairly forgettable pop or "R n B" aimed at a teenage market (as music has been since the 50s). Hazard a guess to say that you wouldn't hear any of this list on the radio in 5 years
There has been some good stuff come out in the past 4 years, but it generally doesn't make the top 10.

Every generation has standards that become classics, but there is a lot more music being played today, 24 hours a day. Only a few truly great songs are written each decade. The rest of the time has to be filled with something, which opens the gate to lots of fluff and filler which is chosen to appeal to the market which buys the most music. I'm a child of the '60s and I think that's the best music, and I still play it along with classical, jazz, and classic country. Those of you who are '90s children probably prefer that decade's music. It's just how we define ourselves. I strongly dislike today's music, just as kids of today strongly dislike mine. That's okay.

According to the Wikigods, Gangnam Style made it to number 1 on the Billboard chart for "Hot Rap Songs," which is kind of inexplicable. Not asking for Quizmaster to rethink the list, though, as I get that it doesn't count.

My deliberate ignorance of modern pop music caused me to only get 12 answers. But I went through the list afterward and recognized a bunch more artists who I have heard of but didn't think of.
The only one I am familiar with that I can stand is Gotye. Eminem used to be okay but I haven't heard anything I like from him in many years now.

Some of the duets come up under one artist's name, but not the other. For example, "Timber" comes up for Pitbull, but not Kesha. "Love the Way You Lie" comes up for Eminem, but not Rihanna. I got them, but it'd be nice if that was fixed.

Sure, complaining about things is okay because you're entitled your own opinions, but hating on OTHER PEOPLE for having different opinions is going too far. You may not be able to understand at all, in any way, why we like this music, but in my perspective, listening to it gives me confidence and it makes me happy and no matter how much you PERSONALLY don't understand that, doesn't give you any such higher permission to go and hate on people for having different music taste than you, it doesn't make us stupid, it simply means we're different. That's a fact of life.

The hot 100 top pop tunes have sucked regardless of Era. They package it and feed it to teenagers and they wolf it down. And the execs laugh at them all the way to the bank. The artists ( I use the term loosely) wallow in their self importance until their fans grow up and realize how ridiculous they really are.

Not anymore. Ever since Billboard started tracking data from Nielsen Music, not to mention the addition of streaming data and iTunes sales, songs have been staying on the charts for much longer than songs in the 1960s or 1970s.

There is good music out there, but you won't hear it on top 40 stations. Most of the stuff on this list is mindless junk designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Once every few years a song with a modicum of quality slips onto the list, but those are the exception, not the rule.

OKAY, MUSIC TODAY IS TERRIBLE, WE GET IT. I like some of these songs, don't really like others. Everyone has their own taste in music. But you don't need to use this comments section to boast about your low score because "this generation has such poor taste".

My tastes actually seem to go backwards. The older I get, the further back I look to discover music that's fresh and interesting to me. At this rate, I'm gonna be one of those weird old people that listens to mostly classical music someday.

2000s were terrible you’re just looking back fondly as you’ve forgotten all the rnb rubbish that was in the charts then. Same way I look back fondly on the early 10s and think now is bad. Every year has a few good tunes the rest are awful.

Music should stay exactly the way it was when I was young. That was the best music. All music since then is terrible. I don't like that society stops catering to my generation specifically. Boo hoo hoo.

I've yet to see a music-based quiz on this site that doesn't have a generous helping of "this isn't real music/this music is rubbish" comments. It's right up there with the whole Turkey/Cyprus Europe vs Asia argument in terms of repetition.
Now there's a quiz topic: most common topics of trolling commentary on Jetpunk (just rolls right off the tongue)

Y'all are gonna hate on me so much for this but I wish One Direction was on here, they had a lot of top hits! Also, you guys can say they're just a "stupid pop bubblegum" boyband, but their management completely controlled them and didn't let them write a lot of their earlier music, plus, all their unpopular music is really beautiful and meaningful and much better than the pop hits their management chose for them, they've inspired countless people to love themselves and be themselves, so anyone hating on them may think that people who like them are the shallow stupid people, but in reality, you guys are the shallow ones for assuming and hating without actually knowing. And I think some of their songs should've been on here (yes, I know Pillowtalk was but I don't count that)

I think music can mean a lot to someone without it being good. I think everyone grew up with certain songs that were special to them and helped them with things. And because certain things resonate with you, you see the song in a whole different light.